


will i see you tonight? (on a downtown train?)

by SpankMyAstonMartin



Series: stay young, get stoned [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-24 06:45:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6144998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpankMyAstonMartin/pseuds/SpankMyAstonMartin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Octavia breaks up with her boyfriend. Bellamy takes her out for drinks. Raven appears at some point.</p><p>Or rather...</p><p>I came across the ‘I’m drunk on public transport and you’re high and we both keep looking at each other knowingly’ AU on Tumblr and felt like writing a thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	will i see you tonight? (on a downtown train?)

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Tom Waits' 'Downtown Train.'
> 
> This is part of a collection of one shots in a modern AU setting. None of the stories are in chronological order. This falls somewhere in the middle of the timeline.

At some point down the line, Octavia will thank her brother Bellamy for taking her out for drinks the night she broke up with her (now ex-) boyfriend Lincoln. She'll thank him for buying her more drinks than he should have. She'll thank him for flirting with the bartender so their drinks were stronger than normal. Maybe she'll thank him for not bringing up Lincoln even once while they were out. 

Octavia will thank her brother Bellamy for taking her out for drinks at some point down the line. But right now? She kind of wants to kill him. Maybe Lexa will help her hide the body. 

The Blakes, including their mother, are pretty damn good at holding their liquor. With the exception of (both of) their twenty-first birthdays, Bellamy and Octavia have never thrown up or blacked out from drinking. They're generally the most sober of their friends after a night out. Their only friend who can keep up with them (and drink them under the table on more than one occasion) is Clarke. 

(Monty tries his best. Miller is a close second until they start doing shots of tequila. Monroe and Harper get handsy after three mixed drinks so the group limits them to two drinks in public. Clarke's girlfriend Lexa usually ends up being the designated driver so she'll have a shot of whiskey at the start of the night and switches to the closest thing she can find to craft beer depending on where they're at. And Jasper's been a mess ever since his girlfriend Maya moved to London for work so a drink or two and he's done.) 

Octavia doesn't tell anyone she and Lincoln are no longer together the day it happens. She goes back to the house she shares with Bellamy, Miller, and Clarke and Lexa and hides out in her room. Clarke and Lexa's dog lies on the floor outside her door and whines. Octavia stays in her room until Bellamy comes home from work two hours later. She's supposed to be at work herself but she took today off to talk to Lincoln and then eat a gallon or two of ice cream. (She never bought the ice cream on her way home.) 

Bellamy finds her lying on her bedroom floor. She's listening to the break up playlist she, Clarke, and Monty made in high school. (It was a result of Clarke's then boyfriend dumping her and suggesting they do something other than setting the inside of his locker on fire – Octavia's idea.) It's been almost a decade since this music has been played in a Blake household. 

"Wanna go out for drinks?" Bellamy asks her. 

"You buying?" Octavia doesn't lift her head off the floor. She just throws an arm over her eyes so Bellamy doesn't see that she had been crying. 

"Sure." 

"Give me ten minutes." 

Bellamy gives Octavia fifteen minutes from the time he closes her bedroom door behind him to when he knocks on it to ask if she's ready to leave. (He feeds the dog and takes him for a walk in the meantime.) Octavia looks like her normal self when she finally leaves her room. 

He takes her to a bar two towns over. It's not one of their usual spots. They go there because there's no chance of bumping into their friends. Octavia doesn't want to talk to anyone just yet. She wants to drink. Maybe she'll talk to everyone tomorrow when she's (hopefully) hungover. 

They (meaning Bellamy and Octavia) have been to this bar before. They came here twice when they first moved into their current home, before Miller and Clarke and Lexa (and their dog) moved in. The crowd is different. It's a more laid back atmosphere, nothing like the loud, rowdy bars and clubs they normally frequent. There's a jazz band playing live music on the stage in the corner of the main room. 

Bellamy finds them two stools at the end of one of the three bars situated along the walls. The bartender, a young woman around Bellamy's age, comes over to them almost immediately. Bellamy flirts with her just as quickly and orders a round of shots for Octavia and himself. 

Octavia downs both of their shots once they're poured. Tequila. 

"Rough week?" The bartender, Gina, asks. 

"Rough day," Octavia supplies with a shrug. 

"As your bartender for the night, I have to ask, do you want to talk about it?" 

"Break up." 

Gina nods. She pulls out two more shot glasses and pours tequila into those and the two glasses she used earlier. She slides three of the glasses to Octavia. The fourth is given to Bellamy. 

"These three are on the house," Gina says, catching the slightly panicked look that crosses Bellamy's face. "Drink up," she says to Octavia. "Break ups suck." 

Octavia snorts and knocks back two out of the three shots. She passes the last one to her brother. 

"Catch up," she tells him. 

"I'm driving," Bellamy says. 

"That's what public transportation is for." 

"I'm not leaving my car here overnight." 

Octavia pouts. Bellamy frowns. Octavia exaggerates her pout. She has to keep from smiling when Bellamy's shoulders sag. He has a hard time refusing her requests on a normal day. It's damn near impossible for him to do it when she pouts. He grabs the glass and drinks. 

"This is the only one," he says as he slides the glass back to Gina. 

Octavia catches Gina's eye. She smirks. Gina winks at her and pours them more shots. They get Bellamy to take three more shots before he insists they switch to something other than tequila. He takes two shots of Fireball after Octavia insults his drinking abilities. 

Five hours later and almost a dozen and a half more drinks later, Bellamy decides it's time for them to go home. His first class tomorrow is at ten-thirty and he hates teaching while hungover. 

Gina takes fifty bucks off their tab on the condition that Bellamy and Octavia swing by every once in a while. The Blakes agree. Octavia leaves a fifty on the bar as a tip. 

Octavia and Bellamy stumble out of the bar, each one trying to support the other. Bellamy tries to fish his keys from his pocket. Octavia digs her knuckles into his side until he agrees to take the next bus home. Unfortunately for them, the next bus isn't scheduled to arrive for almost another hour. 

Fortunately the nearest train station is four blocks away. Octavia calls Clarke on their walk to ask her to pick them up from the train station in their town. 

"Bellamy has a class at ten-thirty," Clarke says after Octavia explains where they've been. "It's almost three in the morning." 

"We know, mom." Octavia rolls her eyes. "Can you just pick us up from the train station? Please?" 

"Lexa's going to have to pick you up. Artie swallowed Miller's flash drive so the two of us are on poop or throw up duty." 

"Sounds fun." 

Bellamy chooses this time to belch loud enough for Clarke to hear over the phone. 

"Sounds like you're about to be on throw up duty too," Clarke teases. 

"If he throws up on me, Lexa's going to wind up helping me hide his body," grumbles Octavia. 

"Please don't make my girlfriend an accessory to murder." 

"Why? Conjugal visits don't sound like fun to you?" 

"I'm hanging up now. Lexa will be at the station. Try not to kill Bellamy." 

"Yeah, yeah." Octavia hangs up and shoves her phone into the back pocket of her jeans. She punches Bellamy hard enough to make him stumble forward. "Hurry up. Lexa's waiting for us." 

"How're you not smashed?" Bellamy slurs. 

"I'm not old," Octavia replies. (The truth? She's just gotten better at hiding her intoxication from her brother.) 

Bellamy flips her off as they step onto the train. 

What would normally be considered the drunk train on the weekend was practically a ghost town tonight. Their train car is empty save for them and one other person. The only other person in the train car is someone who's closer to Octavia's age. In fact, she's the only person Octavia has seen tonight who's close to her age. 

Through her drunken haze, Octavia registers the odd smell of the train car. It's a smell she was very familiar with in college. She stares at the young woman sitting across from her and her brother. 

She watches her slip a vape pen into the inside pocket of her red jacket as the conductor comes around to collect their tickets. He sniffs the air and shoots Bellamy, Octavia, and the young woman a dirty look. The young woman gives him a brilliant smile which she fixes on Octavia when she starts to laugh. The conductor leaves with a huff. 

The train starts to move. Bellamy slumps in his seat and falls asleep. Soon his snores fill the train car, competing with the sound of the train flying over the tracks. 

Octavia spends the next however many minutes switching between looking out the window and looking at the young woman. Who would not stop smiling at Octavia whenever they made eye contact. Soon Octavia finds herself returning said smiles. 

They're one stop away from where Bellamy and Octavia need to go when the young woman gets off the train. Octavia wonders what her name is. She doesn't know she's voiced that thought until the young woman looks at her over her shoulder. 

"It's Raven," she says. 

"Octavia." 

Raven smiles. "Let's do this again sometime." 

Octavia laughs as Raven pulls a granola bar from one of her jacket pockets. Raven tears it open and devours it as she's walking away from the train. Octavia sees her stop by a food truck in the station parking lot as the train starts to move again. 

The lurch of the train knocks Bellamy into Octavia. He stays there, leaning most of his weight against her until they get to their stop. 

Octavia hauls Bellamy to his feet when they reach the station. Walking with a drunk Bellamy isn't easy when Octavia's sober. Walking with a drunk Bellamy while she's also drunk is damn near impossible. If she wasn't already tripping over her own feet, she would have tried (and failed) throwing him over her shoulders and carrying him to the car. Instead she settles for half-carrying, half-dragging him to where Lexa is waiting for them on the platform. 

"Did you two have fun tonight?" Lexa asks as she helps Octavia lift Bellamy into the back of Miller's Jeep. 

"Best part of my day," answers Octavia. "Heard Artie ate Miller's homework." 

" _Artemis_ ," Lexa stresses, "ate what he thought was a snack. It just happened to be Miller's flash drive." 

Octavia laughs. She leans her head against the window, the cool glass helping to sober her up. 

"You guys should come out with us next time," Octavia says. "We found a bar you'll probably like." 

"Not on a school night." 

"Yes, mom." 

Lexa huffs. Octavia laughs again. Her laughter fades as the movement of the car lulls her to sleep.


End file.
